Matthäus Gottfried Purmann

Matthäus Gottfried Purmann , originally probably Purrmann (born March 28, 1648 in Lüben , Silesia ; † May 27, 1711 in Breslau ; also Matthaeus or Matthias ), was a German surgeon who, in addition to his important work as an author, was also involved in the development of new surgical Procedure achieved great success.

Life

Purmann was born at the end of the Thirty Years War in Lüben, Silesia. His father Michael Purrmann († February 7, 1667) had studied in Wittenberg and was city clerk at the time of his son's birth, and later he became court judge and mayor. Matthäus Gottfried apparently enjoyed a good school education because he was able to read Latin books. Nevertheless, he did not go to a university, but began an apprenticeship as a wound surgeon with Paul Rumpelt in Groß-Glogau in 1664 .

As a field clerk , he had to deal with countless gunshot wounds, which is reflected in two publications. In the first, he had 25 examples. Six years later these were expanded to fifty and enriched with more recent experiences:

"Fifty special and wonderful bullet wounds Curen, In Pomerania, Before which Belägerungen, Wolgast, Ancklam, Demmin, Stettin, Greiffswalde, Strahlsund, and the capture of the island of Rügen happen: And how such tractiret according to the most correct and constant Cur advantages, and happily curiret / before this Anno 1687. only the help described, but itzo completely published after many compulsions. In addition to second wonderful and remarkable examples and their cures at Halberstadt and Breßlau. By Matthæo Gottfr. Purmannen, surgeon and city doctors in Breßlau. "

After completing this apprenticeship, he went to Frankfurt an der Oder in 1667 and worked for some time as a journeyman for the businessman, alchemist and surgeon Balthasar Kaufmann, with whom he moved to Küstrin in 1670, where Kaufmann became a garrison surgeon. In 1670 Purmann entered the Brandenburg military service as a field shearer, was promoted to regimental field shearers in 1675 and took part in several campaigns of the "Dutch War" through which he came to Alsace, Westphalia and 1678 to Pomerania . After the peace treaty, he was released from military service and moved to Halberstadt , where he married Dorothea Meier on January 8, 1679 and where he practiced as a surgeon. Just one year later he was summarizing his many years of experience as a field surgeon: the right and true field scissor, or the true field scissors art . A plague epidemic that broke out in the same year and hit the small town of Halberstadt severely with 2,000 victims provided the opportunity for probation and material for two further publications. For the duration of this epidemic, the Brandenburg government appointed him Ober-Pest-Chirurgus.

Title page of "The right and true Feldscher"

Probably also because he had almost fallen victim to the plague himself, his gaze turned outside. In the spring of 1685 he bought the office of the late Breslau surgeon Raphael Nürnberger. As in Halberstadt, he soon enjoyed a great reputation in Breslau . As early as 1686 the city council appointed him garrison surgeon. When the city doctor Samuel Rasper died in 1690, the city council entrusted him with his office. In this role he looked after the patients of the Allerheiligen Hospital. Although he was not a medical graduate, he enjoyed a good reputation thanks to his rich experience, his operational skills and his active publication activities. Purmann, who had a good knowledge of anatomy, successfully performed trepanations (a total of forty cases up to 1683), tracheotomies, resections of aneurysms and other difficult operations. A year after Jean-Baptiste Denis , personal surgeon of Ludwig XIV., Transferred animal blood to humans, Purmann was the first doctor in Germany to also carry out a transfusion with lamb's blood, but after many failures came to the conclusion that there was none for the "Chirurgia transfusoria" Place in military surgery. He published his animal-to-human blood transfusions from 1668 to 1678 only in 1692.

In the history of the mediation of East Asian medicine in the West, Purmann secured a place for himself thanks to his intensive occupation with the therapeutic method of moxibustion : “Of moxa, what it is / what it is used for / how it is right to apply / and according to its effect how to proceed with it / if it is to bring the desired benefit. ”Further descriptions published in 1699 and 1710 show that Purmann had the richest experience of all European doctors with this new therapy.

Purmann's writings mark an upswing in German surgery, which should reach its first climax with the textbooks by Lorenz Heister (1683–1758) that followed soon after .

Works

• The right and true Feldscher, or The true Feldscherkunst. Halberstadt 1680, 1682; Frankfurt / Leipzig 1690, 1693, Jena 1705, 1721. ( Digitized and full text in the German Text Archive , Göttingen Digitization Center )
• Matthaei Gottofredi Purmanni Surgical Laurel Krantz: or Wund-Artzney; divided into three parts and 86 capsules; in it all and yba wound-doctors can see in the best and most enjoyable thing bey ieder Verwund- and breach of gantzen human body, even damage, fistulas, tumors, Verrenckungen, broken legs, etc. must be gebrauchet and applied . Hynitzsch, Halberstadt 1684 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • Newly published Surgical Laurel Krantz, or Great Wound Doctor. Halberstadt 1684, 1685; Frankfurt 1692, 1705; Breslau 1705, Liegnitz 1722.
• Matthaei Gothofredi Purmanni Detailed instruction and instructions on how to carry out the Salivation-Cur according to all circumstances and advantages in the best and safest way: so that the appropriate benefit and desired help may follow . Rohrlach, Franckfurt 1694 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
• The sincere and experienced plague barber. Halberstadt 1683; Frankfurt / Leipzig 1690, 1705; Liegnitz 1705, 1715, 1721; Wroclaw 1738.
• Instruction to know and correct pestilential breaks. Leipzig 1686.
• Surgery curiosa. Frankfurt / Leipzig 1699, 1716, 1739.
• Twenty-five peculiar and wonderful gunshot wound cures. Wroclaw 1687.
• Fifty strange and wonderful gunshot wound cures. Frankfurt / Leipzig, 1693; Franckfurt / Leipzig / Liegnitz / Jena 1703; Liegnitz 1703; Frankfurt 1721. ( Göttingen digitization center )
• Large and completely newly wound Laurel Krantz or Wund-Artzney. Frankfurt / Leipzig 1692, 1704; Frankfurt / Leipzig 1722 ( Göttingen digitization center )
• Curious Surgical Observations. Liegnitz 1710. ( Google Books )

literature

• H. Goerke: Matthaeus Gottfried Purmann (1649–1711) and the first blood transfusion in Germany. In: Dtsch. Med. Volume 2, 1951, pp. 134-138.
• Albert Koehler: The war surgeons and field doctors of Prussia and other German states in pictures of time and life. Part 1: War surgeons and field doctors of the 17th and 18th centuries. Verlag August Hirschwald, Berlin 1899 (= publications from the field of military medical services. Published by the Medical Department of the Royal Prussian War Ministry, issue 13), pp. 86–112, especially pp. 99 f. (on the date of death 1711)
• H. Haeser: Textbook of the history of medicine and epidemic diseases. Volume 2. Jena 1881.
• W. Michel: Matthias Gottfried Purmann (1648–1721) and the moxibustion. In: Gengobunka Ronkyu - Studies in Language and Literature. No. 5, Fukoka 1994, pp. 69-80. ( PDF file in the Kyushu University Repository )
• Hermann Frölich:  Purmann, Matthias Gottfried . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 26, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, p. 731 f.
• Michael Sachs: Matthäus Gottfried Purmann (1649–1711). A Silesian surgeon on the way from medieval folk medicine to modern surgery. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 12, 1994, pp. 37-64.
• Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Pur (r) mann, Matthäus Gottfried. In: Encyclopedia of Medical History. , ed. by Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil and Wolfgang Wegner, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2005, p. 1204
• Curt Proskauer , The dental art of the Breslau city doctor Matthaeus Gottfried Purmann (1648–1711), dissertation. From the Department of Conservative Dentistry of the Breslau Dental Institute, Leipzig 1921;

Remarks

1. ↑ Michael Sachs: Matthäus Gottfried Purmann (1649-1711). A Silesian surgeon on the way from medieval folk medicine to modern surgery. In: Würzburger medical historical reports 12, 1994, pp. 37–64; here: p. 52 f.
2. ↑ Large and completely new laurel Krantz or Wund-Artzney. 1692, pp. 286-296.
3. ↑ different titles in the book editions, e.g. B. "The Sincere and Experienced Plague Barber"